Fans Get The Shaft

For Fans Only - Other Voices

December 17, 2000|By Mitch Albom, Detroit Free Press

There's this older woman named Sarah who for years ran an elevator at Tiger Stadium. Every summer, she would sit in that rickety, cell-like thing, which had no ventilation. During July and August it was a furnace.

"Do you think the Tigers could do anything?" she would gently ask, wiping her brow. "Put in air-conditioning, or get me a fan?"

Year after year, nothing was done. Finally, a few reporters got together and bought her a portable hand fan. And there she would sit, this poor woman, running that elevator, sweating, the tiny propellers of her fan doing their meager best to cool her down -- while outside, guys like Cecil Fielder were making millions a year and not winning a thing.

That's the image I have of baseball. The owners throw all their money at the glamorous (players, stadiums) while assuming the little details -- like people -- will take care of themselves.

News flash, owners: The people have returned the favor. They have given up on you. Nobody thinks of baseball as the national pastime anymore. Fewer and fewer of us watch. Kids couldn't care less.

And when people see that Alex Rodriguez has signed a 10-year contract worth a quarter of a billion dollars they have two reactions: